The Second Great Flood...

Believe it or not it happened again. I woke up at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning to sounds which reminded me of Niagra Falls. I had to swim around the basement to find out exactly what the problem was...I found out that our water heater had busted and water was gushing out of it - all over my basement. I swam into the guest room, then into the bathroom, then to the rec room, and finally to the storage room...it was an incredible mess.

The first thing I did was I opened up the basement door to let some of the water out...then I went to Home Depot to buy a wetvac...it was like trying to empty out the Atlantic Ocean with a spoon. Later on we had some guy come over to clean up the rest of the water. Today it looks much better in my basement...the carpeting soaked up all the water...

Here's a video of the 8 fans and the one humidifier I have in the basement now. I have a plumber coming over at 2:00 to put in a new hot water heater...by 4:00 p.m. we should be back to normal...

Another busy weekend...

We had another busy weekend...we hosted a "Walking Wisely" weekend for Kelsie's Church Small Group. Walking Wisely is a weekend activity for Kelsie's church youth group where they spend time learning about God, having fun, and eating ALOT of junk food. They used our house as their home base...what this means is there was alot of screaming girls in my house over the weekend keeping me up until 5:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Cameron had his first basketball playoff game on Saturday. He had his best game - he had about 6 rebounds, he scored 2 points, he made several excellent passes, and he played tough defense. His team won 21-18.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures but...I did spend some time over the weekend sorting out old videos. I came across several old videos of Kelsie and Cameron. I forgot how cute they used to be...it's amazing how quickly things change...

Pretty please...

Would someone PLEASE give this boy some Wheat Thins!!!

Let's do it...

Hey! Let's not start that again...

Another busy weekend...

We had another busy weekend. Cameron had a basketball game on Friday - we won't talk about that...He had another game on Saturday - his team won about 32 - 20. Cameron played another tough defensive game and he made a number of excellent passes. After his game we bought a new bat for Cam - paying for it with the gift certificate Santa gave him this past Christmas. We then rented out a batting cage for 30 minutes to break-in the bat.

On Sunday Kelsie had a Horse Show - she came in second place in her class!!!! Her second place finish was the highest finish on her team. Below is a short clip from her show...

Cameron had baseball evaluations on Sunday. They were given 6 swings, and 5 plays in the field. For the boys who want to pitch they were given 5 pitches. Based on these swings, plays, and pitches the teams will be chosen...

Here's a few more clips from Kelsie whopping Cameron's friends in arm wrestling...Kelsie's a throw back to a time when woman were woman...

Basketball and Belated Birthday Celebration

On Saturday, January 24th, the Tar Heels beat the Yellow Jackets by a score of 108 to 72. The Tar Heels were led by Cameron Hand who had his 4th triple/double of the year. He scored 29 points, had 13 rebounds, and 11 assists. Cameron leads the league in scoring, rebounding, and assists. He is also leading in All-Star balloting with 502,000 votes. Ok...ok...none of this is true other than Cameron's team won on Saturday.

The score was 27 to 17. Cameron scored one basket, he had 3 rebounds, and he played awesome defense. It was a fun game to watch...here's just a few of the "highlights"...

I know the video quality makes it hard to see Cam...but he's #2 in the light blue uniform...

Cleaning up the Yellow Jackets in basketball wasn't all Cameron did this weekend...11 years and 3 days ago, at 3:00 a.m. in the morning, Cameron showed his face in this world for the first time. We celebrated with 3 of Cameron's "best and closest friends". They went bowling, played Lazer Tag, ate, and sang to celebrate with Cameron. Oh yea, and Cameron's favorite sister - Kelsie Lyn - and her friend came along too. Kelsie even found time to whoop all the boys in arm westling!! Something I will never let the boys live down!!

Here are the boys at the Bowling Alley...they bowled 300...that is...when you added ALL their scores together for both games...

We almost got kicked out of Fudruckers when the boys brought in their "GUNS"...

Fortunately...or not...we found out the "Guns" the boys had were actually Pop Guns...notice how each of the boys got whooped by a girl! Here's Kelsie schooling the boys in the fine art of arm westling...

After the boys were whooped by a little girl it shouldn't surprise you they sang "Hey There Delilah" as they skipped on their way home...

The Weekend in Review...

It's been a very busy week. Sheri is in St. Louis on a business trip and so I'm playing Mr. Mom. I've been running the kids around to school, church, and sports activities all week long. Not to mention cooking, cleaning, shopping, laundry, ironing, etc...it's a lot easier than I thought. But I have to admit I'm trying to figure a few things out...like "Why are all my white clothes now pink?", and "What's a good side dish for Cheese Doodles and Mountain Dew?" and "Is there a stain remover for an iron burn on a shirt?' and "Is showering once a week enough for a 10 year old boy?"... oh yea, and one more thing, "How often do boys need to brush their teeth...once, twice, or three times...a week?"

My load lighted on Friday when I took my little girl to the airport for her first solo flight from Atlanta to St. Louis. One of her Christmas presents from Santa was a trip to St. Louis to see family and friends. I was very impressed with Kelsie's calm, cool demeanor as she walked onto the plane by herself (along with 50 other people). But I couldn't have been anymore impressed with her after she called me on the phone and told me her plane was diverted back to Atlanta for mechanical problems. Most people would have been a little nervous about flying after finding out the plane had mechanical problems - but not my little girl. She was a little upset that she was going to get into St. Louis late but she wasn't the least bit concerned about flying.

With the girls in St. Louis - Cameron and I had a "Guy's Weekend". He had a basketball game on Friday night and Saturday afternoon - unfortunately, I didn't have a video camera to video tape the games...come to think of it...maybe it was better I didn't have a camera...they lost both games.

The weekend wasn't all fun and games for us...we had to do some manly yard work too. As some of you know I have had some trees fall down in my yard recently. Cameron and I had to break out the chain saw (grunt, grunt) to chop up some trees. Cameron came up with the great idea to build a log cabin with the trees we chopped up...unfortunately it was after we cut up our biggest tree into tiny little pieces. Luckily we had a few other trees fall down and so we have about half the logs we need to build a good log cabin.



Here's the start of our log cabin...ok...it's not much at this point...but give us some time...it will improve...



Since we've moved to Georgia I've been promising Cameron we would go explore downtown Atlanta...our first stop...the Georgia Dome...home of the Atlanta Falcons...



Next stop...the Georgia Aquarium...



Stop # 3...CNN...



We stopped by Olympic Centennial Park...



Next, we stopped by Phillip's Arena...



We ate lunch at the Varsity...across from Georgia Tech...



Here's Cam getting ready to dig into a "Naked Dog" and a "Chili, Cheese, Slaw, Dog"...don't worry - he drank a Diet Coke to off-set the unhealthiness...of the dogs...



Since Cameron is off tomorrow...he invited a couple of friends to sleep over...here they are eating some Mello Mushroom Pizza...



Here are the boys chilling in the basement...they're going to sneak the chicks in after I fall asleep...

Risky Business

Thanksgiving

I spent the Thanksgiving Holiday with the Collin's Family in Coal Valley, Illinois. We had a great time. The food was delicious and the company was great. We spent a lot of time playing games, going to the movies (James Bond, Bolt), shopping, and spending time together. Jim and Bonnie always make everyone feel at home and make sure there's plenty to do and PLENTY TO EAT! Unfortunately, I had to leave earlier than expected because of the snow. To make sure I made it back to Georgia on Sunday night I took an earlier flight...I didn't want to take the chance my later flight would be cancelled. Jewel was very happy to see me when I got home...here's a picture of the snow at 9:00 a.m. in Coal Valley...




Here's a quick look at one of the games we played...I think it's called Band Hero...you play the drums, guitar, and sing...listen...I'm sure you'll be very impressed with my talented family...well actually you probably won't be impressed but it was fun anyway...you might even want to turn OFF the volume on your computer before listening to it. On the guitar is Kelsie, on the drums is Cameron, and singing is my niece Shayna...



Before we left to go to Coal Valley I cleaned out the basement and I took pictures of most of my pictures...